The Future of the Euro: Why Sentiment Alone Can’t Save the Union

Being an American journalist reporting on the troubles of Europe is sometimes an ego-damaging experience. I regularly encounter economists, officials and other Europeans who take the attitude that we Yanks just don’t understand the euro. Americans, in their view, simply analyze the euro based on its perceived benefits and costs. But, I’m told, the euro [...]

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Steven Sotloff, a 31-year-old freelance journalist, self-described “stand-up philosopher from Miami” and grandson of Holocaust survivors, immersed himself in the tumult of the Middle East for years, repeatedly venturing into some of the most hazardous conflict zones.
He reassured friends he knew the risks as he wrote for publications that included Time magazine, The Christian Science Monitor and World Affairs Journal.

American employees put in longer workweeks than Europeans. They are also more likely to work at undesirable times, such as nights and weekends. This column argues that the phenomena of long hours and strange hours are related. One possibility for this is cultural – Americans simply enjoy working at strange times. Another, more probable explanation, […]View the full post at: Americans Work Long and at Strange Times

In some surprising news, and quite contrary to what its record low bond yields would indicate (for a key reason for said artificial demand for French, see The Greater Fool) today the Pew Research center released results from a poll of 7646 EU citizens in March 2013, showing that the new sick man of Europe is Europe itself, or rather the great unification project itself: the European Union.

The euro zone crisis has slipped off the radar screen during the past couple of weeks as gun control and the Boston bombers have dominated U.S. news. But none of the euro zone’s problems have gone away. Political crises beset France, Italy, and Spain. Smaller countries, from Portugal to Cyprus, face even more pressing financial troubles. Germany grows less and less willing to foot the bill for bailouts. And for the first time, serious public figures in Europe have begun openly discussing the pros and cons of allowing countries to default on their national debt.

The euro zone crisis has slipped off the radar screen during the past couple of weeks as gun control and the Boston bombers have dominated U.S. news. But none of the euro zone’s problems have gone away. Political crises beset France, Italy, and Spain. Smaller countries, from Portugal to Cyprus, face even more pressing financial troubles. Germany grows less and less willing to foot the bill for bailouts. And for the first time, serious public figures in Europe have begun openly discussing the pros and cons of allowing countries to default on their national debt.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Sunday stepped into a crunch EU debt crisis summit urging Europe to "act decisively and effectively" to contain troubles threatening the continent and beyond."It's been proven now that the crisis is not a Greek crisis," he said in comments to the press. "The crisis is a European crisis. So now is the time that we as Europeans need to act decisively and effectively."

Andrew Wilkinson submits: After several weeks of building expectations over the depth of what the FOMC might deliver, it seems investors have quickly come to terms with its impact on the value of the U.S. dollar. While most onlookers were quick to conclude that the Fed was deliberately devaluing the dollar, it’s the parlous state of peripheral European state finances that is limiting appetite for Eurozone-based assets.

Two different blog arguments remind us how rare it is to find an empirical, scientific attitude in political debate.Take first Dave Osler’s contrast between Jade Goody and my fellow Corpuscle Gail Trimble. He says that “basic family details alone would be sufficient for most of us to have no difficulty in predicting” their very different academic attainments. But his first commenter points out that many people from poor backgrounds are academic achievers.